Beehives

ABSTRACT

A beehive having a brood frame which has a contour corresponding to the shape of a catenary. Rotatable means in the wall of the frame permit only certain bees, no bees or all bees access into the frame.

United States Patent Bielby 1 BEEHIVES [72] Inventor: William B. Bielby,Flat 3, 74 Cornwall Road, Harrogate, Yorkshire,

England [22] Filed: Jan. 23, 1970 [21] App1.No.: 5,201

[52] US. Cl. ..6/2, 6/4, 6/10 [51] Int. Cl. ..A0lk 47/00, AOlk 47/06[58] Field of Search ..6/1, 2, 4, 1O

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 81,220 8/1868 Simons ..6/11,135,623 4/1915 Rosato ..6/2 R [4 1 Dec. 5,1972

3,110,044 11/1963 Dullas ..6/1

FOREIGN PATENTS 0R APPLICATIONS 657,715 1/1929 France ..6/4 R 901,38011/1944 France ..6/4 R 913,565 6/ 1946 France ..6/2 R 145,240 5/1954Sweden ..6/4 R Primary Examiner-Lucie H. Laudenslager Attorney-AbrahamA. Saffitz [57] ABSTRACT A beehive having a brood frame which has acontour corresponding to the shape of a catenary. Rotatable means in thewall of the frame permit only certain bees, no bees or all bees accessinto the frame.

2 Claims, 2 Drawing Figures BEEHIVES This invention relates to beehives.

Conventional beehives usually include a main compartment or brood box ofrectangular shape upon which may be superimposed on or more tiers ofcorrcspondingly shaped detachable smaller compartments known as supers.

Both brood box and supers are adapted to accommodate detachablerectangular frames for containing wax combs, the main compartment beingfor the bees and their rearing activities and the supers for storage ofhoney mostly for extraction by beekeepers.

The aforesaid parts are protected by an appropriate roof.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a beehive with abrood box of modified base which, it is believed, will enhance theefficiency of the beehive.

According to the present invention a beehive has a brood chamber ofwhich the internal contour in sectional vertical elevation has the shapeof a catenary curve which corresponds to the natural shape of the combof the honeybee.

Preferably, the brood chamber of the hive is defined by a pair of spacedend walls and an intervening wall of constant cross-sectional shapecorresponding to the natural catenary curve of natural honeycomb. Thereis a bee entrance opening into the brood chamber to enable bees to passinto and out of the brood chamber.

Preferably the opening has grids therein having different sizedapertures thereon, and there is an adjustable plate which can cover anyone or more of such grids when desired.

An embodiment of the invention will now be described by way of exampleonly, with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view ofa beehive according to the invention; and

FIG. 2 is a half section elevation taken on line ll-ll of F 16. 1.

Referring to the drawings the brood chamber of a beehive is defined by apair of rectangular end walls which are interconnected by an interveningwall 12 of which the internal contour 14 (see FIG. 2 in particular) insectional elevation has the shape of the catenary which corresponds tothe natural shape of the comb of the honeybee.

The hive has a bee entrance opening indicated by 16 to enable bees topass into and out of the brood chamber. The opening 16 has therein twogrids 18, 20 having apertures 22, 24 respectively of different size. Adisc 26 is positioned over the opening 16 and is rotatably adjustable toallow access to the brood chamber only through one 18 of said grids orto allow only ventilation of the brood chamber through grid 20 dependingupon the particular time of the bee cycle. By this arrangement certaintypes of bees are prevented from entering or leaving the brood chamber.The entrance opening 16 is shown located near the top of one of the endwalls 10, but. it will be understood that such location is not necessaryand the opening could conveniently be in the wall 12. At the lower endof one of the walls 10 there is located an aperture 11 which on the onehand serves the purpose of ventilating the brood chamber and on theother hand serves for enabling an Apidictor (Registered Trade Mark) tobe connected to the brood chamber.

The hive illustrated may be composed of any suitable synthetic plasticssubstance or it may consist of a combination of such substances andwood, fiber board or laminates. It is preferred, however, that the hivebe composed of light-weight plastics material such as expandedpolystyrene or polyurethane rigid foam so that it is easy to handle andhighly insulative. Heat insulative hives are desirable as heat lossesfrom the hives are reduced and when this happens, it has been shown thatless food is consumed by the bees.

Adapted for use with the brood chamber are brood frames for wax comb.One such frame 25 is shown in the drawings and it will be seen that eachframe is shaped or contoured to correspond to the catenary curve 14 ofthe wall 12 of the chamber, and it has a top bar 28 which rests on shelfribs 30 on the inner face of wall 12. Extending down from each end ofbar 28 is a curved support leg 22 which corresponds in shape to thecatenary curve 14. The supports serve to hold a wax foundation for thecomb to be formed thereon. This support leg 32 is easily fitted but mayrequire trimming after fitting to the support legs 32. The top bar 28 isdesigned such that when the chamber is full of brood frames, the topbars abut side-by-side and the spacing between the frames in the chamberis the desired amount. These frames 25 may be of moulded syntheticplastics or other suitable material or combination of such materials.

The hive may have any number of detachable supers in conjunction withthe aforesaid brood chamber which supers are preferably designed toaccommodate comb frames of orthodox rectangular shape. The dimensions ofthe top peripheral edge of the brood chamber are preferably such thatthe supers may be formed by either the wooden brood boxes or supers ofNational and Modified National hives. Of course the supers could be ofsynthetic plastic material having good insulati ve properties.

The embodiment herein described provides a beehive which does notrequire the usual separate floorboard, so that labor is saved in thebuilding of the hive and in developing a colony of bees in the hive, thebees have a minimum amount of comb to build. This is to say, there areno bottom corners of comb in which to build as has hitherto been thecase with rectangular frames.

lclaim:

l. A beehive including a brood chamber, said hive having a pair ofspaced rectangular end walls, an intervening wall interconnecting theend walls, said intervening wall being in the shape of a catenary curveextending from the tops of said end walls to adjacent the lower edge ofsaid rectangular walls, said intervening wall having adjacent its topedges shelf ribs for supporting broad frames thereon, one of said endwalls being provided with a central bee entrance opening therethroughnear the top thereof, a plurality of sections two of which are gridsections, a blocking section and an open section, a disc rotatably oversaid opening cooperating with said bee entrance opening so the bees maypass through freely, certain types of bees may be allowed to passthrough, ventilation only may be allowed or the hive be closed entirely,the other of said end walls being provided with an opening at the lowerportion thereof, opening into said broad chamber to provide ventilationin said chamber.

2. A beehive as claimed in claim 1 wherein said walls are formed fromheat insulating material.

1. A beehive including a brood chamber, said hive having a pair ofspaced rectangular end walls, an intervening wall interconnecting theend walls, said intervening wall being in the shape of a catenary curveextending from the tops of said end walls to adjacent the lower edge ofsaid rectangular walls, said intervening wall having adjacent its topedges shelf ribs for supporting broad frames thereon, one of said endwalls being provided with a central bee entrance opening therethroughnear the top thereof, said opening being provided with two gridsections, the apertures of said grids being of different sizes, a discrotatably mounted over said opening and being provided with openingscooperating with said bee entrance opening so the bees may pass throughfreely, certain types of bees may be allowed to pass through,ventilation only may be allowed or the hive be closed entirely, theother of said end walls being provided with an opening at the lowerportion thereof, opening into said broad chamber to provide ventilationin said chamber.
 2. A beehive as claimed in claim 1 wherein said wallsare formed from heat insulating material.